What is the Tech Worker Movement?
You might have heard the term "tech worker", born to distance ourselves from the idea that to produce technology you have to be a worker, not a hippie, startuppy, buzzword-spewing dude from California.
The work we do is material, concrete, tangible, stressing even if often is not measurable. Without our work, digital technology wouldn't be possible. Delusions of full-automation fall short as soon as you spend a couple days with a sys-admin.
Then we thought: there are other kinds of workers that are necessary to keep the big machine going. Without riders delivering food, Glovo, UberEats and Deliveroo won't run. WIthout drivers delivering packages, Amazon, YOOX, Zalando won't run. Without service people taking care of offices and feeding workers, no tech company would run. They are tech workers too.
So the movement was born and is leading to the creation of more freedom, more rights, more autonomy and better technology.
It's a galaxy of individuals, organizations, collectives, unions, squads of friends, computer programs, possibly some aliens and I'm sure at one meeting I've seen a talking dog that could write Python and was angry about their working conditions. (might have been a furry, idk)
There's no reason the tech industry should be a meat grinder for most and a paradise for a selected few. There's no reason why the tech industry, in a time of climatic collapse, should be focused on toxic products like predatory ad-targeting, mass surveillance, betting, weapons and military software and many others.
If let to itself, the tech industry will develop technology against us, against the planet, against our future, only to make profit. The responsibility is ours: we can create better conditions for ourselves to create better technology. The future is ours to write.
If you want to join an organization:
Tech Workers Coalition: https://techworkerscoalition.org/
Game Workers Unite: https://www.gameworkersunite.org/get-involved
If you want to know more about the tech workers movement:
https://logicmag.io/the-making-of-the-tech-worker-movement/full-text/
